the centre of the extreme end stood the principal altar, adorned with grotesque idols: among these figures I discovered two camp-followers busily employed in taking down a fine Joss; to serve, no doubt, to enrich the collection of Chinese curios. In the adjoining apartment, I found our party most zealously engaged in discussing an ample supper, at which I need not add, I had much pleasure in assisting. This important operation being satisfactorily executed, and the necessary number of cheroots smoked, without which no meal to the east of the Cape is reckoned as complete, Captain Gough and I set off to explore the house. The elegance of the rooms, as well as the chasteness of the decorations and furniture, was astonishing; while the beauty and delicacy of the carving, which was lavished around with an unsparing hand, showed that the Chinese fully merit the praise they have received with regard to their skill in this art. The garden also was in perfect keeping with the character of the building, being laid out in that picturesque style for which the Chinese are so celebrated. The grounds were stocked with many of those extraordinary gigantic shrubs, which are produced by stunting the growth of the plant. One "merrie conceit" in particular attracted our attention: at the end of a short passage was an oval opening, which seemed to terminate in a long walk; but on stepping out, we found another garden, laid out in a different style from the last. After wandering about for nearly two hours, we returned on board the Nemesis; but had not laid down half an hour, before we were roused by the bugles sounding the alarm: fortunately it proved a false alarm, and the remainder of the night passed away quietly.

The neighbourhood of Canton afforded other insights into manners and customs :

The 29th was devoted to numerous exploring parties round the various positions, and in the villages near Canton, in many of which were some curious Joss-houses. One suburb of the city deserves particular mention; being, in the literal acceptation of the term, a city of the dead. It consisted of a well-built town, which was apparently not inhabited by living beings, but devoted entirely to the tenants of the tomb. The front of the houses was appropriated to the worship of Joss, while the back part was divided into several small chambers, each containing several coffins, arranged on elevated platforms, and surrounded with incense-burners. The outside of these chambers was tastefully ornamented with beautiful creeping plants; while over the doorway were generally inscribed some Chinese characters. The coffins were very thick, and made of camphor-wood; and, when opened, contained embalmed bodies in the highest preservation. Each "tenant of his narrow bed," being attired in his best clothes, presented no unpleasing image of our long sleep. One coffin, in particular, contained a mandarin, dressed in full uniform, with rich satin robes and cap and button, denoting the rank of the deceased: one hand held a fan, and the other a Chinese chop, perchance a letter to Charon; while some money was arranged on his breast, in the form of a cross, intended no doubt as a fee for the boatman. The Chinese are, I believe, very particular in paying respect to the memory of their ancestors, which may in some degree account for the extreme neatness of this immense mausoleum.

VOL. II. (1812.) No. II.

P

We now quote an illustrative anecdote with regard to the opiumsmuggling. Comment is unnecessary, seeing that a magistrate furnishes the example:—

During an excursion into the interior, we halted a short time to rest; and while here, the elder of the village, at which we were, came out, and invited us to sit down in his house-an invitation I accepted with pleasure. After being seated a minute or two, the old gentleman produced an opiumpipe, with all the paraphernalia belonging to it, and, after preparing every thing, offered it to me. Not being inclined to partake of it, I declined the proffered civility; at which the old gentleman smoked the pipe himself. This is but one instance, out of many I know, of the partiality of the Chinese for the drug. The well-known venality of the mandarins is such, that it will not surprise my readers when I say, that I never yet entered a mandarin's house without finding quantities of opium. This will serve to show the error some have fallen into, in supposing that the practice is not universal, and that it is not connived at by government officers. In fact, to talk of the Chinese government putting down opium-smoking, or even wishing to do so, is about as absurd as to attempt to stop beer-drinking in the United Kingdom.

The Narrative presents some facts which indicate the disposition of the Chinese people:

An expedition, under Captain Scott of H.M.S. Samarang, having the plenipotentiary with him, proceeded up the Broadway, a passage of the Canton river never before navigated by any European vessel. This force took and destroyed several small forts and mandarin stations, and otherwise harassed the enemy. In addition to the natural difficulty of the navigation, the passage was much obstructed with stakes, placed there to prevent our advance. The peasantry, however, came to us voluntarily, and assisted the seamen in clearing them away, manifesting no signs of fear or distrust, and none of hostility: they also rendered us, in other respects, every assistance in their power.

Although it would be rash in us to speculate with regard to the precise issue of the war, it yet seems probable, now that a new campaign has commenced, that the final treaty will be concluded in the capital of the Chinese empire. Mr. Mackenzie himself says, even after his lament over omissions, procrastinations, and fruitless observance of civilized manners, that "A new scene and new theatre for action is now open to the expedition: let us therefore, in conclusion, hope that the operations carried on may lead to a certain and honourable adjustment of the many difficulties with which we have to contend; but that, at the same time, so severe and salutary a lesson will be taught the Chinese, as effectually to prevent a recurrence to their formerly oft repeated and too long unpunished atrocities."

The appendix to the volume contains several highly interesting

papers. Among these we find the memorial which Keshen sent to the emperor on the state of the defence of Canton province. We must copy out a portion of this characteristic document:

Your slave has also made personal observation of the character and disposition of the people of this province. He has found them ungrateful and avaricious. Putting out of view those who are actual traitors, and of whom, therefore, it is unnecessary to say anything, the rest dwell indiscriminately with foreigners; they are accustomed to see them day by day; and, after living many years together, the utmost intimacy has grown up between them. They are widely different from the people of Tinghae, who, having no previous intercourse with foreigners, felt at once that they were of another race. Let us reverse the circumstances, and suppose that the English had craftily distributed their gifts and favours, and set at work the whole machinery of their tricks, here as at Chusan; and it might verily be feared, that the whole people would have been seduced from their allegiance; they would certainly not have shown the same unbending obstinacy that the people of Tinghae did. These plain evidences of the want of firmness on the part of the people here, give us still more cause for anxiety. We find, on turning over the records of the past, that, when operations were being carried on against the pirates of this province, although these were only so many thieves and robbers, with native vessels, and guns of native casting, yet the affair was lengthened out for several years; and was only put an end to by invitations to lay down their arms under promise of security. And it is much to be feared, that the "wasp's sting is far more poisonous" now than then. Your slave has again and again revolved the matter in his anxious mind. The consequences, in so far as they relate to his own person, are trifling; but as they regard the stability of the government, and the lives of the people, they are vast, and extend to distant posterity. Should he incur guilt in giving battle when unable to command a victory, or should he be criminal in making such arrangements as do not meet the gracious approbation of his sovereign, he must equally bear his offence; and for his life, what is it, that he should be cared for or pitied! But if it be in not acting so as to meet the gracious approbation of his sovereign that he becomes guilty, the province and the people have yet their sacred sovereign to look to and rely upon for happiness, protection, justice, and peace. Whereas, if his guilt should lie in giving battle when unable to command a victory, then will the celestial dignity of the throne be sullied, the lives of the people sacrificed, and for further proceedings and arrangements it will be, in an increased degree, impossible to find resource. Entertaining these views, a council has been held of all the officers in the city; namely, the general and lieutenant-generals of the garrison, the lieutenant-governor, the literary chancellor, and the commissioners, intendants, prefects, and magistrates, as also the late governors, Lin Tsihseu and Tang Tingching; all of whom agree that our defences are such as it is impossible to trust to, and that our troops would not hold their ground on the field of battle. Moreover, the troops ordered from the different provinces by your majesty having yet a long journey to come, time is still necessary for their arrival: nor can they all arrive together. The assem

blage of a large body of troops, too, is a thing not to be effected without sundry rumours flying about::-our native traitors are sure to give information; and the said foreigners will previously let loose their contumacious and violent dispositions. Your slave is so worried by grief and vexation, that he loathes his food, and sleep has forsaken his eyelids. But, for the above-cited reasons, he does not shrink from the heavy responsibility he is incurring, in submitting all these facts, the results of personal investigation, to your celestial majesty. And, at the same time, he presents for perusal the letter of the said foreigners, wherein they make the various restorations before enumerated. He humbly hopes his sacred sovereign will with pity look down upon the blackhaired flock-his people, and will be graciously pleased to grant favours beyond measure, by acceding to the requests now made. Thus shall we be spared the calamity of having our people and land burned to ashes: and thus shall we lay the foundation of victory, by binding and curbing the foreigners now, while preparing to have the power of cutting them off at some future period.

ART. V.-Arabic Language and Lexicography. By W. GESENIUS, Professor of Theology in the University of Halle.

To his "Manual Hebrew and German Lexicon" Professor Gesenius has prefixed a dissertation, containing a condensed, and, by oriental scholars, highly esteemed, view of the sources of Hebrew philology. In pursuing his examination of the ultimate sources of our knowledge of the signification of Hebrew words, he traces them back to several. Among these the following figure, viz. the kindred languages, all of which, he admits, so far as the monuments of them are now extant, are younger than the Hebrew of the Old Testament. But still they are in fact more copious than the Biblical Hebrew, and are either living languages, or have been systematically treated in grammars and lexicons by native scholars, or at least are extant in several writers. On these accounts these kindred languages are of great importance, seeing that there can be in them comparatively much less doubt than in the Hebrew. To make use of all these sources with critical judgment and with a correct estimate of the value of each; and, in the special cases where they sometimes are discordant with each other, to search out and establish the proper relation among them, and also the context;-this, he says, is the office and the duty of the truly learned philologist and lexicographer, who investigates for himself, and who then assuredly cannot rest with merely making use of his immediate predecessors.

According to the high authority of Gesenius, the most copious and important source of Hebrew philology and lexicography, are the languages kindred with the Hebrew, usually denominated (in the absence of any appropriate appellation employed by earlier writers) the Shemitish languages; an acquaintance with which, he asserts, particularly in the etymological part of the investigation, is

indispensable. He divides the Shemitish stock into three principal branches; the third being the Arabic language, the most valuable by far, he tells us, of all the languages kindred to the Hebrew, and in every respect the most fertile source of Hebrew etymology and lexicography. We shall select some passages from the dissertation, where he goes more minutely into the subject of the Arabic, prefacing his observations, however, with a few words on the character and culture of its literature.

The literature of these cavaliers of the desert, is not more useful than it is delightful. Its very existence is a romance as wild, as bewitching, and to the first view seeming almost as unreal as the wildest of its enchanting tales. In studying the works which compose it, the Orientalist finds that fresh and racy feeling often renewed which he had in his boyhood, when reading, by the wasting light of his bed-lamp, the " Arabian Nights," which he had smuggled to his chamber. Amid the dulness of a study so dry and spiritless as numismatics, where every coin is almost like every other, this feeling is revived, with peculiar force, by the specimens of the medals of Arabian countries. A Cufic coin of gold is in the antiquary's hand. Cufic! there is poetry in the name; there is mystery and gracefulness together in the curves of those noble old letters. The gold is virgin gold, purer than the western sovereigns could afford. Nor is it any vulgar ore, washed from the red clay of Carolina, mined from the earth by the half-savage Brazilian, or picked from the sand by naked Guinea negroes. No; it is the gold of Ophir, coined from the hoarded ingots of Solomon, Darius, and Alexander. And its inscription, how strange!

"In the name of the most merciful God, Abdallah Imam Abu'l Abbas Ismael Al Mansur Billah, Prince of the faithful.

"Son of Imam Abi Abdallah Mohammed, the son of Imam Kaiem Beamrallah Al Sherif Hosein.

"O servant of God! God is the Lord; he will take away thy calamities.

"Coined in the castle of Segelmassa: may God defend it. 340 Hegira."

What a fulness of words is here; and what a simple and fervent religious feeling in the third legend, making the coin a sort of circulating homily! What an antidote to hard times it must have been!

Arabic poetry is interesting for its very strangeness. It loses not its value or enchantment, because it has not a Homeric, or a Miltonic richness, strength, and grandeur. It is wild and melodious, and often fervent and tender.

Arabic History is enchanting; nor can it be read without that high excitement which no history creates that does not preserve the rich pictorial style of an eyewitness.